Justine Curgenven Speaks in Brooklyn, 3/26/2015

Kayaking 2,500km along the Aleutian islands 

Come and hear award winning filmmaker and expedition sea kayaker Justine Curgenven talk about the highlights and challenges of her world first kayaking journey along the Aleutian islands and Alaskan peninsula, described as "the greatest technical sea kayak expedition in the world". With round-the-world adventurer Sarah Outen, she set out to paddle 2,500km along the archipelago to the nearest road confronting more than 20 long crossings which separate the tiny unpopulated islands. Alone for 101 days in one of the windiest, roughest places on earth, these two women are swept away from land by unknown currents, pounded by rough seas and approached by bears. Experiencing an edge-of-your-seat journey, they gain a rare insight into themselves, the rich wildlife and the lives of the few people who live in this harsh yet beautiful landscape. Justine will show video clips from the highly-anticipated film and tell behind the scenes stories.
The fun starts at 7:30 pm on March 26th. 

Floyd Bennett Field is a venue change - Justine's presentation is being hosted by Sebago, and originally it was going to be at our Brooklyn location, but the great popularity of this well-known expedition paddler and producer is drawing more people than we think we can fit in our cozy Canarsie clubhouse, so Ranger John D. at Floyd Bennett (a fellow paddler and a really nice guy) has arranged for the move to the Ryan Visitor Center. Thank you John and thank you National Park Service!
Donations will be accepted to help defray Justine's travel expenses. Refreshments will be served.

If you'd like to attend, please RSVP either to the general Sebago Canoe Club email address,  contact"at"sebagocanoeclub"dot"org, or on the Facebook event page. For instructions to Floyd Bennett Field, use Google maps (the map on the Facebook event page is completely wrong for some reason). Hope to see you there!

Here's the trailer from the film:

CCNY Concrete Canoe Team at Sebago

4/28/14 Update - YOWZA! This just in from the head of the Canoe Committee:

"Sebago Canoe Committee

Please pass the word .........

The CCNY engineering students won overall FIRST PLACE at the American
Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Competition at Cook's Pond !!!

They have much thanks and appreciation for their training at Sebago.

They set course record for Coed !

They immediately asked if they can return to train at Sebago for the
nationals in Pittsburg in 2 months !

Bravo Sebago !"

AWESOME! 

Oy. Here we are, two weeks after the Season Opener, and I still haven't finished talking about what we found going on back in the basin, after our paddle around Canarsie Pol and prior to retiring to the clubhouse for the traditional consumption of mass quantities.

We found a crew of energetic young folks charging around the basin in a most unusual craft - a canoe made out of concrete. 

This group was the City College of New York's 2014 Concrete Canoe team, who'd been working with members of Sebago's Canoe Committee for a few weeks.

The American Society of Civil Engineers hosts this annual competition (which began in 1988, not surprisingly in Michigan, a canoe-crazy state if ever there was one). Teams are challenged to design, build, and finally race their own concrete canoes.

From the ASCE's Concrete Canoe site: "The ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition (NCCC) provides students with a practical application of the engineering principles they learn in the classroom, along with important team and project management skills they will need in their careers. The event challenges the students' knowledge, creativity and stamina, while showcasing the versatility and durability of concrete as a building material."

It was really neat finally seeing one of the boats! Like most people, when I think of something made out of concrete, I think of something that's solid and immobile - fascinating seeing it made into something floaty and fleet. I should've take a close-up or two - the boat had nice racing lines to it but when you looked at it closely, it absolutely wasn't pretending to be made out of anything but concrete (and I think they said it took about 7 people to move it around).

The team had been coming out for a few weeks in all kinds of weather and were being coached primarily by a member of the Canoe Committee who's done a lot of dragon boat racing. I'm not a great judge of canoe technique but I thought they were really looking like racers, and they had the boat well under control on what had turned into a very breezy afternoon. 

For a few more pix, click here.  

Spring Safety Spiel (cross-posted from Frogma)

Well, goodness, have we got a nice-looking weekend coming up here in the Northeast. Temps in the 60's in NYC, light winds and sunshine - perfect weekend to break out the ol' canoe, right?

And of course the answer to that question is, as always for this time of year,

"Yes, of course, but please learn the risks and have the right gear."

I suspect I'm preaching to a combination of choir and fellow preachers here but I always feel like I have to do this this time of year - the air's warming up but that water is still cold to the point that a mishap that would be humorous in August could actually be the last mistake that person makes.

There've already been a couple of the usual late winter/early spring news stories about kayak accidents doing the paddler social-media circuits - a couple of fatalities, plus one really lucky saved-life story. Naturally the story with the happy ending involved a paddler who was wearing their life jacket - I haven't got time to hunt down the link right now but if I'm recalling correctly, the story was that someone spotted the overturned kayak from shore and called for help. The paddler was past the point of being able to move by the time rescuers arrived but the lifejacket kept them afloat.

In NY State, we're still in the time of year when anyone out in a recreational craft of 20' or less is required by law to wear a properly-fitted lifejacket; that's not the rule everywhere, but a boater who doesn't is taking a big and completely unnecessary risk.

Beyond that, dressing properly is also important - remember that we had a very, very cold winter; I was talking to some of my polar bear swimmer friends last weekend and they were remarking on how cold the water remains right now at Coney Island.

Thinking of doing some spring boating, but not sure how you should prepare, or just feel like you could use a refresher? Visit the links in my Cold Water Safety section on Frogma, top of the sidebar - always good to know before you go!
 

Seal Watching Sans Kayak, Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, 3/16/2014

Seal-Watching Sans Kayak, Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, 3/16/2014, a set on Flickr.

Possibly the easiest Sebago trip I've ever planned. "Hey guys, here's the event, here's the website, buy yourself a ticket if you want to come, see you on the boat". Ended up being a great day - I'm so glad that the Bowsprite took Tugster Will on an Audobon tour for his birthday, I'm not sure I would have thought of this on my own. Click here for Tugster's post - brrr, there was still snow then! The tours were only supposed to run through the 9th, but they extended for 3 weeks. I got a ticket the first one when I found out (I'd tried to get on the one on the 9th but it had been sold out, so I was tickled to find out about the extension), and then decided to spread the word at Sebago as this seemed like a great off-season activity that anyone could enjoy. We ended up having a very nice turnout, 8 of us went, and aside from the fun of having friends along, I think this was probably much nicer than the sold-out one on the 9th. With the short notice, I think the Sebago crew made up half of the passengers - no sardines at the railing trying to get the best view, there was plenty of room for all! Sound like fun? There are 2 more left, tickets can be purchase on the NYC Water Taxi site.  

Iced in at Sebago, 2/1/2014

I'm finally recovering from a cold I've had for a while and with the forecast this weekend calling for temps in the spendidly high 30's (woohoo) I found myself itching for a paddle. 

Fortunately Steve the Paddling Chef called for a hike instead. I'm awfully glad I decided to join in on that instead of paddling - turns out there would have been a major logistical issue with paddling! Here are a few photos from the club yesterday, taken before and after our short hike at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. 

No more writing - click on the first picture to go to the better slideshow view.

Cross-posted from Frogma. 

Manorville Hike, 12/8/2013

Some of us at Sebago do keep paddling all winter, but not everyone's got the inclination (or the cash, a drysuit can be a very expensive addition to one's paddling wardrobe). However, most members are still very interested in spending time outdoors in pleasant company, so one of our members, Frank F., has volunteered to organize some hikes over the off season. I joined in on one of these yesterday. 

 It was a really nice hike, about five and a half miles in the Manorville Hills County Park. We started out with a couple of miles along the Paumanok Trail, and here I'm just going to share the little writeup that clubmate Dottie left on my Facebook version of the gallery I'll link to at the end of this post:

"The Paumanok trail is a 125 mile trek through wilderness, where you can encounter glacial kettles and erratics, rolling hills with panoramic vistas, parabolic dunes, coastal plain ponds, White Atlantic Cedar swamps, Dwarf Pines, Pitcher Plants, Painted Turtles, fields of Reindeer Lichen, maritime grasslands, Harbor Seals, Harrier Hawks, Olive Hairstreak Butterflies, Cedar Waxwings, and more. Long Island is an island of great natural diversity and the Paumanok Path visits much of it."

We didn't see too much wildlife because we were all talking, catching up with each other as we walked, but that was half the fun. The scenery wasn't as dramatic as some hiking areas but it was very pleasant. It was a pretty quick drive, we had people along who knew a lot about the area's geology, which always makes a hike more interesting to me, and the gently rolling hills made for some very nice hiking, not boring but not too hard either. Another good point that Frank pointed out about this park is that it's got a pretty extensive network of trails, so it can actually handle a lot of hikers without feeling crowded. There were a number of cars in the parking lot but except for a couple of gentlemen who were doing trail maintenance for the county, we didn't see anybody else all day!

I'm just at the point in recovering from a nasty cold I'd come down with the weekend after Thanksgiving (why do we say "I caught a cold" when it's more the other way around? This was an office bug that I'd managed to evade for 2 weeks before it finally got me but when it did, ugh!) that I really felt like it was time for some gentle exercise. if it was summertime, this would've been when I would've go joined my open-water swimmer friends out at Brighton Beach for a slow swim and some basking in the sun - this time of year, though, this hike was just what the doctor ordered. It was hard to get myself out the door in the morning - I got a ride from neighbor Beth so I only had to walk a block to meet her, but our meeting time was 7:30 am and it was sooo chilly outside - but I'm very glad I did.
Click here for a photo trip report! 

Cross-posted from Frogma.

Four Sparrow Marsh paddle september 2013

A nice September day to paddle from the clubhouse to Four Sparrow Marsh behind Flatbush Avenue in Mill Basin. A little windy on the bay but quiet and serene in the marsh.